Senate: Just Vote on Judges Already

Despite the fact that there are 84 current judicial vacancies, the Senate has confirmed only five judges in 2012. This glacially slow pace belies not only the vacancy rate (and 34 judicial emergencies) but also the fact that there are 21 nominees ready for votes – including 14 who have been waiting for votes since last year. Case in point? Gina Groh, a state court judge nominated to a seat on the Northern District of West Virginia. She has been nominated to a seat that has been vacant since December 2006 – that’s right, for over five years. Yet a vote on Ms. Groh has, for no apparent reason, been held up since October.

On Tuesday, a number of Senators took to the floor to talk about the need to take action on judicial nominees like Ms. Groh. I was particularly struck by the floor statement made by Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. In her statement, Senator Klobuchar noted, among other things, that most nominees are voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with overwhelming support, and that votes on judges, once scheduled, do not take up much time. She also pointed out that the number of judges confirmed during President Obama’s Administration lags far behind the number confirmed at the same time in President Bush’s first term.

But it was Senator Klobuchar’s conclusion that was both compelling and striking in its simplicity: “[W]th judicial vacancies, there is only one solution, and it is simple, and it is well within our grasp: let’s vote. Let’s vote on all of the pending nominees and then let’s continue to vote as more nominees emerge from the Judiciary Committee.” Let’s hope her colleagues take those words to heart, so the people of West Virginia, as well as jurisdictions across the country, won’t have to wait any longer for justice.